The Gjork
Once a reserved and quiet minor race on the edge of galactic affairs, noted mostly for not expanding past their solar system and staying out of the Turavid civil war, the Gjork now exist as a political and social nightmare of an empire. They constitute the largest single-race hegemony, controlling roughly 23 percent of galactic territory and dominating over a dozen minor races to assure their power. Biology : A reptilian race that despite the common cultural emphasis placed on their massive broodkin, which can easily reach heights between three and four metres and often weigh in excess of 120kg, most Gjork are actually relatively average in size, weighing in and sizing up just under 90kg and two metres tall, respectively. While all Gjork have scaly skin, two arms and two legs in the conventional humanoid format, each baring hands and feet with four digits oriented to grasp inward. The particulars of an individual tend to depend on their subrace, of which the Gjork possess several. The most common of which are the Blues, the Skanes, and the Chir. The Blues : Named so not so much for their skintone, which can range anywhere from purple to turquoise, but the colour of their long and forked tongues which can be extended and retracted much like many Earth-reptiles. They feature a taller and more angular skull which sweeps back in a brightly coloured crest. The Skanes : Closely related to the Blues are the Skanes, which initially inhabited a different region of the same continent. They're built wider and feature a short and wide skull adorned with bony plates and nodules. Their skin tends to fall within the same range as the Blues, if not slightly more green. The Chir : Much more distantly evolved than their other surviving subraces, the Chir are distinguished by their brighter lusterous colouring ranging from bronze to green, crocodile-like skulls, and the appearance of feathers on their body. Their feathers, while not quite as developed as those of Earth-birds, exist primarily to reflect status and forms a slight fuzz over their backs and outside of their limbs. Feeding : Despite their almost gruesome and highly predatory appearance to many humans, the Gjork are an entirely vegetarian race which cannot digest animal matter. They fead heavily upon leafy plantlife, but will indulge themselves with fruit, berries, and nuts as a treat. Many of their features which seem oriented towards predation are indeed meant for defense against the many, far more gruesome animals of their jungle-dominated homeworld. Genders : While most species possess two sexes and the Atsadi possess only one, the Gjork possess four, only two of which can breed. They are named brood-lord, brood-queen, brood-son, and brood-daughter. The brood lords and queens are reproductively fertile members of their species almost twice the size of other individuals and are relatively rare, only constituting one twelfth of the population. Reproduction Lifespan : The typical, non-brood lord or queen will only live to be between sixty and eighty years before dying of natural causes; however actual average lifespan is more in the range of between thirty and forty in the border colonies. Brood queens and lords can easily live to be over 200 years old themselves, with an average lifespan of 170 years. : Gjork are the fastest-reproducing sentient race in the galaxy, fortunately only brood-lords and queens are capable of reproduction, however all members of their species do possess reproductive organs and are known to engage in mating. Gjork commonly achieve sexual maturity around age 18, though some reach this point sooner and some later. Once reaching this point, fertile female individuals can begin to lay eggs at a rate of one five to seven egg clutch every five months, with eggs hatching after an incubation period of three months. Culture : Highly varied between their subspecies, the Gjork tend to have hierarchical societies with females, especially brood-queens, above males. Before being brought into the Turavid civil war, they were known for a strong focus on tradition, placing their "brood" or family before themselves, and surprisingly given the events of the war, their calm and harmonious philosophies. : Since the war, the oligarchy initially couped into power by the Turavid dissidents has made a strong but ineffective effort to rewrite their own history and shape the Gjork into a more manipulatable race. While ineffective, the majority of Gjork have been brought into support of the Gjork wars via anti-xeno propoganda and relying on strong inter-brood hierarchies to make involvement compulsory. Ever since, cultural advancement has largely existed in an underground fashion, with their dissident opinions and art becoming increasingly dangerous to aire. Rebels : Not all Gjork adhere to their government's wishes, entire Gjork broods, numbering between a few hundred to well over a thousand, have defected to either the Alliance, rebel factions, or simple neutrality. Because of this, it's not unusual to find Gjork throughout alliance space and on the outer rim of the galaxy without any interest in war. Clothing : Gjork peace-time clothing tends to be light and minimal, with nudity even acceptable within some cultures. While military personnel typically wear heavy and thick armour meant to shrug off Turavid accelerated-mass based weaponry, which has proven disasterous against Atsadi lasers. Politics : A military-political nightmare of interwoven loyalties, bureaucratic councils, and backroom talks the Gjork political machine is enormous and weighed down by its own corruption. While many colonial governments do in fact engage in clean and even at times democratic leadership, they are nothing more than a clean patch in the cesspool along with the dirtier patches of those brood-queens who rule their colonies as warlords. At the top is an oligarchy put in place by the Turavid dissidents to finally give them access to the Gjork as a military machine in their war. While not even the names of the individuals are known, they're typically understood to be obeyed without question. Due to the complexity and opaqueness of their government, very few even among Gjork understand who orders are coming from and what they're doing them for. Military : In theory separate from their government, the military high-command is effectively an interchangeable term with the rest of their political machine. The largest in the galaxy and organized along lines of brood-relationships, facing a Gjork battalion means facing down dozens of brothers and sisters willing to die for their broodkin. Naval fleet :: Leaning heavily on their Turavid colonies to produce their fleets, the Gjork navy largely resembles an economically procuced version of the Turavid. Gone are the gold and bronze plating, fine interior gardens, and resemblences to nature in their place the Gjork have added armour, boarding pod bays, and seemingly strapped-on modules. The Gjork place a strong value on their capital ships, with the largest collection of deadnoughts in the galaxy. Due to the splintered and fickle nature of their commanding officers, actual counts on the size of their fleet are impossible, but based on known ships encountered the Gjork possess at least 57 dreadnoughts and several hundred battlecruisers. Infantry :: Known for its almost fanatical performance in brutal close-in fighting, more likely due to cultural demands for bravery than any racial strength. There are few well known individual infantry units with many not surviving more than a few battles, though several brigades such as the Kushat and Kior have won much respect even from their enemies for their espit de corps and professionalism. Armament :: The Gjork themselves have a long history of being relatively disinterested in technological advancement, it's not that they're stupid, simply that they have little desire to change the ways that've worked for generations. Because of this, they've time and again been forced to simply adopt technology from conquered cultures to keep their warmachine from becoming outdated. Gjork infantry is typically armed with railgun-type small arms and supported with heavy transport vehicles to maintain mobility. Their fleets are armed primarily with missiles, which they view as offering the best balance between destructive potential and economic feasibility. History Early Gjork history consists primarily of their proto-race's diaspora across the planet, followed by an ice age separating their populations for thousands of years. Within this time, most Gjork developed some sort of stone age culture and adapted to their surroundings before the end of the ice age brought an abrupt end to their seclusion. Following this, the Gjork spent over ten thousand years in back and forth conflicts before being united by a single brood-queen named Ralisi who has become something of a mythological figure in their cultures. The race then sat relatively idly, capable of interstellar flight but only founding two major colonies. Uplifting versus coup d'etat While crude by most galactic standards, the Gjork were indeed capable of interstellar travel by the time the Turavids turned to them in the Turavid civil war. Having been proud of their peaceful coexistence with both sides of the conflict, their leader, Aralisi, grandaughter of Ralisi, quickly found herself in poor health following a visit by a Turavid dissident envoy. Following her death, there was a brief coup to bring her daughter out of power and install an oligarchy of dissident-supporting brood-queens and the Gjork promptly joined the Turavid civil war on the side of the dissidents. While often cited as uplifting by the modern Turavids, who claim to have granted technology and freedom to a less advanced race, this brief period is often cited by both Gjork and Atsadi as an root-cause of Nef'ludwan and the prolonged Gjork wars. Wartime participation Relatively unadvanced and lacking a navy, the Gjork primarily assisted in the form of assualt infantry, which they excelled in. They did however build their own fleet, largely in secret from their allies and eventually went on to betray the entire Turavid race in the events of Nef'ludwan. Post-Nef'ludwan Despite common belief among the Turavids, Nef'ludwan was not a pre-planned event carried out on behalf of Gjork high command, but an act of vengeance by the daughter of Aralisi, Tamisi who briefly held the Gjork throne as matron before demotion to a fleet commander. Multiple ship captains and commanders mutinied over the orders and following the event Tamisi was unceremoniously executed via ejection from an airlock. While unplanned, the Gjork oligarchy saw an opportunity of necessity, unable to any longer remain loyal or diplomatic with any of the Turavid factions and uncertain of Atsadi neutrality, they declared war on all parties. The resulting Gjork blitz as it's known catapulted the Gjork from a subjugated race to masters of the galaxy's largest domain. Some assumed the Gjork unstoppable until the Atsadi joined the war and caused the Gjork to lose every battle they became involved in against tactics and technologies they'd never encountered before, forcing an armistace. Ever since, the Gjork have had a push and pull at their borders with the alliance and a few minor unaffiliated races, with brief struggles punctuated by armistaces and occasional exchanges of territory. While clearly no longer in their interests, the Gjork leadership cannot end the near ceaseless conflicts both for a risk of rebellion among their own people when they have no outsiders left to blame and the risk of what the Turavids would do to the Gjork people if ever allowed to exact revenge.